In Vietnamese culture and folk beliefs, the tiger has always been the supreme symbol of strength, bravery, and a sacred guardian that wards off evil spirits. Entering the artistic world of painter Lê Thiết Cương, this zodiac animal not only inherits the thousands of years of national heritage depth but is also redefined through a minimalist language.

Lê Thiết Cương's profound understanding of the tiger motif in traditional Vietnamese art history is demonstrated through his insightful gaze at heritage spanning several centuries. He points out that the image of the tiger appeared abundantly on the unique 13th-century Trần dynasty brown-patterned ceramics, as well as on 15th and 16th-century Chu Đậu ceramic jars and three-color (tam thái) plates. He also discovered the village art identity of the Vietnamese through 16th and 17th-century communal house woodcarvings, such as the relief of a tiger playing at Lỗ Hạnh communal house, the tiger hunting scene at Thổ Tang communal house, or the tiger-fighting carving at Chẩy communal house. Most prevalent in spiritual life are the stone tigers guarding the three-entrance gates (tam quan) and the famous Hàng Trống Five Tigers worship paintings, closely tied to the custom of worshipping the White Tiger facing West, representing the Metal element, by the business and trading community. 

The artist reflects on this spiritual culture of "faith brings sanctity," even drawing connections to the Eastern horoscopic charts of heroic figures characterized by the Tang Môn / Bạch Hổ (Gate of Sorrow / White Tiger) star combination. Because traditional art history already boasts so many exceptional depictions, creating a tiger form becomes a difficult puzzle, demanding that contemporary artists find a distinct path of their own, without conformity or repeating the past.

Painter Lê Thiết Cương himself is a "Tiger" - an artist born in the Year of the Tiger. Therefore, when he sets his brush to paint a tiger, it is not merely about illustrating a sacred beast from culture or folk beliefs. It is also a journey of self-portraiture. The tiger imagery in Lê Thiết Cương's paintings bears the very reflection of the artist himself: rebellious, unconventional, full of aura, and always fiercely driving his craft to the absolute limit.

In the flow of contemporary Vietnamese art, adopting animal imagery as an evocative "pretext" to channel the transitional sentiments of a changing year, bidding farewell to the old and welcoming the new, has long been a beautiful tradition among artists. Rooted in this sacred emotional thread, the buffalo under the lens of painter Lê Thiết Cương possesses a highly distinctive identity.

For Lê Thiết Cương, the inspiration for sculpting this zodiac animal stems deeply from his native roots. As he wrote in his essay "Welcoming the Year of the Buffalo 2021": "Vietnamese art originates from the village. Vietnamese art is village art. Vietnam is a country of villages. The civilization of the Vietnamese people and the Vietnamese nation is a wet-rice civilization." For this reason, the painter compares the image of the buffalo to the pillar of Vietnamese culture and civilization. The closeness and familiarity of this animal, intertwined with its industrious, diligent, and robust nature, became the perfect material for the artist to weave into his works as a wish for health and peace for everyone as the new year knocks on the door.

The image of the buffalo in traditional Vietnamese art has always been diverse, stretching from 17th-century wooden reliefs in village communal houses to young boys playing the flute or flying kites in Đông Hồ folk paintings. To avoid repeating his predecessors, Lê Thiết Cương chooses his own path through a minimalist language. He strips away and discards redundant, realistic details, using simple strokes and primal color blocks to refine and retain the "spirit," robustness, and gentle nature of the sacred animal.

“Rice has accompanied the Vietnamese people for over 2,500 years.

Rice not only sustains the physical life of the Vietnamese but also shapes their spiritual life. The village fields stretching from the Red River Delta, the Central plains, to the Mekong Delta… vividly reflect the image of a wet-rice civilization.

The village is the fundamental unit that creates Vietnam. Vietnam is the village; Village – Nation. All forms of Vietnamese art originate from the village: village communal houses, village temples, village festivals, traditional theater performed in the village square, water puppetry at the communal hall, performances at the village gate… There is no Vietnamese person without their village roots within them.

[...]

Through Rice, one sees the Vietnamese people; through the Vietnamese people, one perceives the grain, and recognizes the spiritual DNA of Vietnam.

Rice, a Mother.”

Le Thiet Cuong

7.2025

"In the breath of the contemporary world, there is a reflection of ourselves [...] I don't want to depict a specific person, a specific street, so that everyone who looks at it can see their own reflection, their own role." - Artist Nguyen Minh has depicted a story where the boundaries of identification are blurred to make way for empathy. In his creative philosophy, there is a subtle choice: rejecting the depiction of specific entities to create an artistic space that is symbolic. It is a meaningful "space," allowing each viewer to step in and fill it with their own memories, shadows, and roles.

For him, contemporary art is not something distant, but the very heartbeat of existing life, where the individual self blends into the mainstream of society. 39 Concept believes that this perspective offers a liberation to the viewer, as they are no longer confined to the author's viewpoint but are free to define themselves within the artwork. In this episode of Art Talk, let’s contemplate how nameless forms can evoke the most genuine emotions, allowing each of us to feel an inseparable part of the contemporary spirit that artist Nguyen Minh is persistently seeking.

39 Concept invites you to step into a "multidimensional space" of color and emotion. Here, we will admire how the essence is distilled from the simplest things, transforming them into timeless works of art that convey a message of appreciation and continuity of national cultural values.

At 39 Concept, each Seed Charm requires 40 to 45 days of painstaking work by artisans to reach completion. That timeframe reflects a fundamental rule of lacquerware: it cannot be rushed.

Lacquerware is a 2,000-year-old Vietnamese craft technique that once served as the visual language of royal courts and sacred rituals. Artisans apply natural lacquer resin to the surface layer by layer, each coat applied thin and even, then left to dry completely under controlled humidity and temperature before the next layer is laid down. A single Seed Charm goes through 20 to 30 such coatings.

Paired with lacquerware is Sanga cattle horn, an indigenous African breed carrying the heritage of ancient civilizations across the continent. The horn is harvested as a natural byproduct of livestock farming, adhering to the principle that nothing of value should go to waste. Sanga horn's keratin structure is lightweight and features unique natural grain patterns that cannot be artificially replicated; each piece carries markings formed by the animal's age and life journey.

Lacquerware delivers visual depth and traditional craftsmanship, while the horn provides a natural, organic feel in the hand. When Vietnamese lacquerware meets Sanga cattle horn—one crafted through dozens of patient lacquer coats, the other formed through years of life—the Seed Charm is born at that precise intersection.